But judging by this excruciating performance just hours earlier on Channel 4 News, it's a wonder the Tory MP was once again wheeled out to defend George Osborne’s U-turn on plans to increase fuel duty.

The floundering minister gave another disastrous performance when faced with another barrage of cuts questions from host Krishnan Guru-Murthy.

Awkward: The Treasury minister looked uncomfortable and ill-prepared for the grilling

In the second car-crash interview to come to light, the 30-year-old appeared ill-informed on the situation as she was unable to tell the news anchor exactly which underspends in government departments would fund the freeze.

Grilled over where the money would be drawn from, Smith stumbled over her words as she said: “As I say, from departments which have underspent.”

Dodging questions, she attempted to reiterate that the U-turn was a “funded policy”, full details of which would be available at the Autumn Statement.

As the wince-inducing Newsnight went viral, becoming a top trend on Twitter, the Chancellor was accused of cowardice on social networking sites for not sticking his own head above the parapet to clarify the government's latest budget policy reversal.

Former deputy prime minister John Prescott also weighed in, tweeting: “When we faced hard times every Cabinet minister would go on TV to defend policy. Osborne sent a very junior minister. Coward”

During her disastrous appearance on Newsnight, Paxman even asked: “Is this some sort of joke? How can you possibly have as a number one priority cutting the deficit when you choose to spend an underspend in funding a tax cut, or failure to implement a tax rise which was scheduled?”

She replied: “The plan overall has not changed. The plan, overall, remains those departmental budgets as they were laid out.

“We are looking to use the underspends, however, in a way that is really valued by households and businesses, and I think anyone listening tonight who drives a car does know that.”

The presenter’s final cutting question saw Paxman ask Smith whether she thought she was incompetent, to which she replied: “I think it is valuable to help real people in this way and I do think that is valued by people who drive.”